Savannah Afros has unveiled “ZOMBA”, the lead single from their hugely anticipated debut EP – Kitchen Encounters, out in June via Million Dollar Music Records. This co-production is a collaboration implemented by Savannah Afros Investments cc, Master Mind Production, Chris Wayne, Dj Potpher and several featured artists. The video is on Savannah Afros YOUTUBE channel. 

earGROUND Community

The release of “ZOMBA” official video follows the long awaited Savannah Afros studio production after 8 years and it’s the first single from their debut EP Kitchen Encounters coming out June. The single is peaked at number #3 on Donlu Music Africa. Off the back of performances at Brewers Market, Goethe Institut and Franco Namibia Cultural Centre, Savannah Afros has also been confirmed as one of the best live acts in the Afro Urban Contemporary scene and have proved themselves to be adopting well in the mainstream music scene with an Amapiano tune, which was produced by Chris Wayne of Master Mind Production. An extensive run of live show dates now follows into the end of this May touring Namibia introducing the new outfit. 

Thrilling, unapologetic and energetic, ‘ZOMBA’ is an anthem for Afro Pop fans to call the shots and talk about personal demons in a form of a zombie starring team Afros front man TAPZ and Marscha as the Zombie.

Written by Chirau and TAPZ – the winning duo behind ‘Songo’ – ‘ZOMBA’ arrives alongside an iconic video directed by Olaf Spitta from Germany, who took us back to those days of black and white zombie movies with a well scripted story line. The video further showcases this unsettled, increasingly-fearful young man out in the Namib desert and all his wildest zombie dreams come to life, ending up in a never-ending chase from a female zombie. 

It’s this extraordinary journey to where he finds himself now that is encapsulated on Savannah Afros’s debut single, from the Ep Kitchen Encounters: a record – and a state-of-mind, in many ways – that they  have worked towards a new sound and approach.

After a successful debut Album – CHEIVHU (OF THE SOIL) in 2015 the band has proved to be one of the best bands from Namibia to the international arts scene with their recent festival show at SIPA festival in Indonesia late last year. 

Across their formative album project, Savannah Afros comprising of TAPZ who is the band leader, Chirau who is the Creative Director and recently joined by Romano Bvss they have written with startling candour on young love, identity, spirituality, power, and social political commentary– topics which are taken to greater heights on Kitchen Encounters. And on that road to their second record, Savannah Afros  music has become a soundtrack – for their  impassioned young and matured fanbase, but also for themselves– on how to turn those vulnerabilities into life lessins. “Talking about it really does give you a kind of confidence,”

TAPZ says now, “and that’s new for me. If you’re really going to make a record that talks to people you have to sit and pick at old wounds – put everything under a microscope. I would’ve loved that from my heroes when I was kid. That dream of pop stars having a perfect life has gone for our generation.” 

Stripping away music’s artifice while keeping true to its giddiness and excitement is Savannah Afros’s special gift. Out of some troubling times they have  fashioned a sensational, fizzing debut record, a top notch Ep which can sit proudly on a global stage next to other rising African stars making waves in the mainstream. In mood, if not exactly in sound, it has some of the complete realisation of early days of Bongo Maffin, had they spent their teenage years in South Africa, or the backstreets of Harare. The calling card of Kitchen Encounters is the brusque, street charm that hides in plain sight among its hooky gloss, and anchors the Ep’s core theme of Kitchen experiences metaphorically describing the preparations and processes of cooking music in the studio. 

“We send a positive message to everyone that’s going to listen to it. We’ve gained so much confidence from writing this Ep and that’s what we want people to take away.”

Now poised to join the pantheon of local and international pop greats, their tireless energy, positivity and drive were never going to allow them to settle for anything other than ‘Kitchen Encounters’. In 2022 watch Savannah Afros, meet them and keep reaching higher still. See full list of upcoming live dates online on their social media.